by Glen McCarthy | Jan 28, 2013 | Classroom, Education, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized
A Day in the Life – First Chord Test This last week was our first chord test in guitar class. I kind of follow the teaching sequence lined out in our text (Essential Elements for Guitar) in introducing easy C and G7 and then adding D7. I move pretty quickly from easy...
by Glen McCarthy | Jan 20, 2013 | Classroom, Education, News, Tips + Tricks
A Day in the Life – Folk Song Revelation Most of the time, we get to the folk songs that are in our Essential Elements for guitar books, and I think, “There is no way the kids are going to like this song”, so many times I gravitate to the more rock oriented tunes....
by Glen McCarthy | Jan 16, 2013 | Classroom, Education, News, Tips + Tricks
A Day in the Life – An Ode to Week Two Week two in guitar class we concentrated pretty heavily on notation on strings one and two. Most all of my students learned the notes B,C,D,E,F, and G in sixth grade with their introduction to guitar. So theoretically this is...
by Glen McCarthy | Jan 11, 2013 | Classroom, Education, News, Tips + Tricks
A Day in the Life – Fretboard Test As 2013 started I was dealt a new batch of students in all my sections. I teach 4 sections of sixth grade general music (we do a 6 week unit on the guitar as an introduction to the instrument as a part of this class), and two...
by Glen McCarthy | Jan 10, 2013 | Classroom, Education, News, Tips + Tricks
A Day in the Life – Teaching Middle School Guitar John Lennon sings … “I read the news today oh, boy About a lucky man who made the grade” I start this blog today as a very lucky man. One who has been fortunate enough to have found a line of work that makes me truly...
by Glen McCarthy | Jan 5, 2013 | Classroom, Education, Tips + Tricks
Suggestions for sub-plans? Plans for substitutes are tricky in a guitar class. I never had the kids get the guitars out on those days. They most often did worksheets related to the guitar. Several of the textbooks include a teacher manual, and there are great...
